Thursday, August 02, 2007

Art & Crafts of India #3: Tanjore Painting

Thanjavur Oviyam or Tanjore Painting is one of my favourite Art of India. The rich gold, semi-precious stones decorated paintings of mostly Gods & Goddesses can brighten up any room.(Details on the frames of one of the Tanjore Paintings)It is one of the ancient forms of painting from South India. It is usually done on dark wooden planks. Tanjore Paintings have become very popular lately and are given as gifts & souvenirs.Interesting themes like 'Rhishaba Vahana'- Lord Shiva & Goddess Parvathi sitting on Nandi(The Bull), 'Gopi Krishna'- Lord Krishna with the Gopis' are some of my favourites.

We are passionate about Tanjore Paintings and you can see some of them here:-)(Rhishaba Vahana Tanjore)

Here are some ideas from magazines...You could group Tanjore Paintings of similar colours together.Group it together like an art gallery or...focus on just one painting.

In our drawing room we've highlighted this 'Ashtalakshmi'- 8 Goddess Lakshmi painting by using bright orange colour on the wall.

So to bring in rich, bright, traditional art into your home, why not invest in a Tanjore Painting :-)

23 comments:

I love your house. Its really like eye candy. I have this huge vaulted ceilings and empty box like hollow spaces one on top of each other above our fireplace and I don't really know what to do about it. One of the hollow spaces houses our tv right now but I don't like it much since its too high to watch. Love the orange color block with the paintings.

I didn't know it was called 'Thanjvur Oviyum'. It is indeed a beautiful art. And i had no clue how painstakingly it is made till my uncle started learning it a couple of years back. The base is prepared mixing various material first- then after drying, the painting happens in various stages and layers. The gold leaf & finally the precious stones are the last to be stuck on. Im so glad you featured it :)

vineeta- Yes, there is lot of hard work involved and in addition to the gold foil & stone decorations, what sets each piece apart is the expressions on the faces of the Gods & Goddesses.Each artist has his own style:-)

wow what beautiful pictures. Arch how did you paint that perfect square of orange on the wall? Where did you get that idea from? I have usually seen it here in Crate and barrel stores where they hang their pictures on a painted background which brings out the true colors of the picutre. As always love your house.Vinita

Vinita- This space initially housed 9 framed terracotta tiles which I had hand-painted...to give a compact unifying look we painted it orange.refer my home featured in decor8After few months when we re-arranged our paintings...we placed the Ashtalakshmi painting which has lot of reds and it brought out the colours & gold so well!!Now we are looking at highlighting some more Tanjore paintings in the same manner ;-))

I liked those pictures alot. Not sure if I read this already so forgive me if I did, where do you get them? I will go back now after my comment to see if you already mentioned it. I have two rooms yet to decorate and I love this look!!! thanks Archana.xoBlue

I don't why I didn't know about your blog before .its beautiful and so different from much of what i see. I exposed to the Indian culture growing up and so have alwys felt at home around it all. Look toward to reaing more!

Hello Arch! Your blog is beautiful! I love the Tanjore paintings. And yes, I agree that meeting such interesting people with such diverse interests and loves is such a joy! Thank you for the beauty you bring and I'm so glad to meet you because of Constance!

sorry I have been a little slow in blogging...just saw your post today... tanjore paintings are indeed gorgeous.. one of my cousins learned this art form in Bangalore. So far though I dont own any...but will invest in one on my next trip.

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

I accidentally came upon your blog and i thoroughly enjoyed browsing through your posts. Your keen aesthetics and natural ability in mixing collectibles with everyday objects is very appealing to me. Kudos!!!

BTW, could you let me know the size of your Thanjavur oviyam, just the picture (Pradsava murthy i.e., shiva & Parvathi on the bull and the ashtalakshmi). Happy Decorating!